Dispensers of plastic cutlery pieces (e.g., knives, spoons, forks and sporks) are well known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 6,336,568 to Tucker, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference, relates to a cartridge-type dispenser that dispenses cutlery pieces one at a time upon hand operation of an externally accessible utensil delivery controller. The dispenser includes a housing having at least one interior compartment in communication with an exit opening. At least partially accommodateable within the interior compartment is a stack of cutlery within a cartridge capable of universally accommodating knives or forks or spoons and provided with a portal through which a single piece of cutlery can pass and wherein a dispensable piece of cutlery is situated. The portal is situated in a pathway aligned with the exit opening. Finally, the utensil delivery controller is an externally accessible hand operable ejector engageable with the cutlery and situated for ejecting the cutlery from the portal of the cartridge and thereafter through the pathway to the exit opening for ultimate user retrieval.
Other types of dispensers include dispensers in which the cutlery is loaded in the housing such as U.S. Pat. No. 8,210,364 to Smith, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. In U.S. Pat. No. 8,210,364 the dispenser generally includes a housing comprising: (a) an actuator, the actuator generally facing in a direction associated with a side of the housing; (b) an opening for loading disposable cutlery; (c) a dispensing chute through which the cutlery passes prior to ejection from the housing; and (d) at least one rocking cam comprising a displacement surface and having a first position and a second position, wherein upon activation of the actuator, the rocking cam moves from the first position to the second position and the displacement surface contacts at least one piece of cutlery, moving the at least one piece of cutlery in a generally lateral direction and toward the dispensing chute, wherein the generally lateral direction is towards the side of the housing in which the actuator is generally facing.
Certain dispensers require reloading the dispensers once all the cutlery is used. Such reloading takes time and, if incorrectly loaded, the dispenser could be prone to jamming. Also, if the person loading the dispenser has not washed her hands prior to loading, the utensils may be unhygienic.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,152,004 to Smith describes a banded packets of disposable cutlery that uses an adhesive.
European Patent No. 1,213,985 to Cassebasse teaches a rod that has one end a grip part and a retaining abutment that holds the top spoon in a stack of spoons in place and at the other end a retaining abutment which holds the bottom spoon in place and the rod is extracted by elastically retracting the elastic retaining projection as the first step in the extraction operation. The rod is inserted through a hole in the stack of spoons. The system described in European Patent No. 1,213,985 is disadvantageous because it requires a large slot in the cutlery pieces.
Thus, there is a continuing need for new methods of loading cutlery into dispensers.